In the tablet world, 7-inch screens are tweeners that users have little use for. If Amazon's Kindle Fire doesn't make 7-inch tablets stick nothing will.

Let's face it: The 7-inch screen is a bit confusing. It's not big enough for a full screen browsing experience and small enough to not be all that much different than some smartphones with 4-inch screens.

It's a tweener. Sure, some folks like a smaller form factor, but Samsung's 7-inch Galaxy Tab isn't exactly lighting up the sales charts. RIM's PlayBook is increasingly looking like a disaster. When you walk into Best Buy the corner with the 7-inch tablets looks a bit deserted. Perhaps Amazon's $199 price tag will reinvigorate demand for 7-inch tablets.

Amazon's mission is to save the 7-inch tablet category. If Amazon can make a go of the Kindle Fire perhaps 7-inch tablets will stick around. But if Amazon launches a 10-inch Kindle Fire and sales of the smaller version tank it's safe say that 7-inch tablets are going to face extinction.

In other words, there's an inflection point for 7-inch tablets. Amazon will have a lot to do with which way this form factor goes.

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CN...
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